Hyundai Genesis : Korea’s E-Class rival launches from $60,000

The Hyundai Genesis has arrived in Australia as the South Korean car maker’s most ambitious and most expensive model yet.

Hyundai’s new luxury sedan is setting out to challenge the likes of the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class with a car that’s not only bigger but features a $60,000 plus on-road costs starting price more like an entry-level luxury sedan.

The company claims the Genesis covers the best parts of the BMW luxury car spectrum, offering the features and refinement of a 7 Series, the dynamics of a 5 Series, with the price tag of a 3 Series.

It’s backing what it calls its most advanced and luxurious car yet with a powerful value card, loading the car with a vast amount of features and throwing five years of free servicing up to 75,000km into the ownership proposition.

Hyundai’s five-year warranty also applies to the Genesis, and the company is planning to introduce a guaranteed buy-back program to reinforce confidence about resale values.

At launch, the Hyundai Genesis will include standard equipment not available on any other car for the same money.

The full list of features for the base model and two option packs can be found at the end of this article, but highlights for the $60,000 Genesis include autonomous emergency braking, multi-speed radar cruise control, auto high beam dipping, lane departure Warning (LDW), hands-free boot access, 9.2-inch touchscreen with satellite navigation, power front seats with heating, leather seating, and a Lexicon 17-speaker audio system.

An $11,000 Sensory Pack adds notable features such as blind spot detection, rear cross traffic alert, head-up display, around view monitor, premium leather upholstery, power bolster and extendable cushion for the driver’s seat, electric steering wheel adjust, and a CO2 sensor that will automatically mix fresh and recirculated air to help avoid drowsiness.

Every Genesis comes with nine airbags and a pre-crash seatbelt-tightening system, while the big Hyundai was also recently awarded the highest score yet in Australian NCAP crash testing.

There’s just one engine and transmission combination offered with the Hyundai Genesis – a 3.8-litre V6 mated with an in-house eight-speed auto. Both are carried over from the first-generation Genesis that wasn’t sold in Australia.

A V8 is available in left-hand-drive markets where the car is sold, as is an all-wheel-drive system.

The V6 produces 232kW at 6000rpm and 397Nm at 5000rpm, with those outputs distributed to the rear wheels.

The power and torque figures are competitive and give the Genesis a claimed 0-100km/h time of 6.5 seconds.

Official fuel economy of 11.2 litres per 100km doesn’t compare so favourably against German rivals, all of which are well below double figures for consumption.

The Genesis sits on a unique platform in the Hyundai range, featuring multi-link suspension front and rear. Its length is just a centimetre short of five metres, making it 9cm longer than a 5 Series.

A 3010mm wheelbase is one millimetre longer than the distance between the axles of the Holden Caprice. Boot space measures at 493 litres.

Hyundai says it hopes to sell up to 1000 Genesis models a year, forecasting about 70 per cent of sales to be the base model and 20 per cent the Sensory Pack model. Only three competitor models exceeded that number in 2013: 5 Series (1108), E-Class (1451) and Caprice (1113).

The Genesis, however, will also play a crucial role in helping to further lift the overall image of the Hyundai brand in Australia.

Hyundai says most metropolitan dealers will feature the Genesis in showrooms, and rural dealers won’t be forced to take the car.